WWE Royal Rumble 2019 Match Card and Predictions

The 32nd-ever WWE Royal Rumble takes place on Sunday, January 27th live from Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, and it’s looking pretty solid so far. With both a men’s and women’s Royal Rumble consisting of 30 participants and several big championship matches, this pay-per-view event has a relatively full match card already. Here are the confirmed matches as well as our predictions for 2019’s Royal Rumble. But first, an explanation of how things work: For the Royal Rumbles, entrants draw numbers (or the WWE makes them up, same thing) to determine the order in which they enter the ring. Every 90 seconds or so, another participant enters the ring. To be eliminated, the wrestler must be tossed over the top rope and have both feet hit the floor. Ready for the lineups?

The Women’s Royal Rumble 2019

The winner of the Women’s Royal Rumble this year gets to challenge for either the Raw or SmackDown Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania. Last year, Asuka won… and then lost to Charlotte Flair in April. The women below are all confirmed entrants in this year’s Royal Rumble as of SmackDown this week, though you can always expect some surprises. Think old school veterans (Trish Stratus?) and up-and-coming NXT stars. It’s a great way to introduce new faces as well. Carmella performed great against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair this week, so we expect her to go far. We also like the looks of Ruby Riott, but we don’t know if the WWE would want to distance her from the Squad by having her win this one. And it’d be cool to see Natalya get a little more of the spotlight – she did mention she was still coming after Rousey’s title after losing their championship match on Raw. Here’s the list of entrants so far, but as you can see, there’s plenty of room for more to be announced in the coming weeks:

The Men’s Royal Rumble 2019

The winner of this one gets to challenge for the Universal Championship or the WWE Championship at this year’s Wrestlemania. Last year, Shinsuke Nakamura won it. The men’s Royal Rumble consists of some big guns like Drew McIntyre, Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, as well as the newly re-introduced John Cena. There’s even a rumor that The Rock will show up, surprise everyone, and clean house. The Architect threatened to come after anybody who gets in his way, including the holder of the Universal Title, so could that be some foreshadowing that he’ll move on to bigger and better things besides Dean Ambrose and the Intercontinental Title? Or will the WWE try to boost John Cena’s street cred at this PPV to welcome him to town? Or heck, could it be that the Rock is really entering the squared circle again? Those are our top three picks. Here are all the entrants so far:

Ronda Rousey vs. Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s Championship

Thank goodness they’re finally bringing Sasha Banks back onto the main stage! Like Rousey said on Raw this week, Banks is basically responsible for starting the Women’s Division movement. She’s also a skilled athlete and she’s got the look of a champ. There’s just one thing. With the rebirth of the Raw Women’s Tag Team Championship coming soon, we fully expected Banks and Bayley to be the flagship title-holders. Sasha holding the Raw Women’s belt might get in the way of that. It’s not inconceivable that Banks beats Rousey in this match, but it’s unlikely. Especially considering we’re still holding out for Rousey to face the crowd’s other favorite member of the Women’s Division…

A post shared by Elite♎ (@_theelitewrestling_) on Jan 9, 2019 at 5:28pm PST

Becky Lynch vs. Asuka for the SmackDown Women’s Championship

With Charlotte Flair out of the way after this week’s SmackDown match for the number-one contender spot, we’ll get to see The Man back in contention for the title. It’s clear the people want Becky Lynch as their champ. Or at least they want to see more of her. Asuka is a great match for her, but we think this is where Lynch regains her title. Honestly, judging by the crowd’s reaction when these women fight, this feels like more of a main event than Strowman-Lesnar. Like we said, we still want to see Lynch and Rousey in the ring together (a match that was ruined by Lynch’s concussion prior to TLC) but we reckon they’ll make us wait until another big PPV event later in the year to let that happen.

Thanks to his deal with Stephanie McMahon, Braun Strowman will get another chance to take on Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title at this year’s Royal Rumble. After beating Baron Corbin at TLC, the Monster Among Men sealed his fate and now that he’s recovered from an elbow injury and talked trash to Paul Heyman and an apathetic Lesnar, all that’s left to do is fight. Strowman might’ve lost to The Beast at Crown Jewel – remember that match that was supposed to be a triple threat until Roman Reigns had to bow out? – but here’s to hoping he can finally recover that championship belt for the WWE once and for all. Finn Balor won a Fatal 4-Way on Raw this week to earn the number-one contender spot after Vince McMahon dumped Braun Strowman from this match. We keep calling for Lesnar to drop the title and it keeps not happening, so we could be wrong again. But maybe, just maybe, this time it’ll happen. This is one of the bigger PPV events of the year and The Monster Finn Balor is really a guy we could get behind as our champ (or at least we’d consider it). Get Lesnar out of here with his part-time nonsense! Come on, what happened to having a fighting champion on Raw?!

Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Championship (Again)

AJ Styles beat out Rey Mysterio, Mustafa Ali, Samoa Joe, and Randy Orton in a Fatal 5-Way to face Daniel Bryan for a shot at his former title, the WWE Championship. Yes, again. The “New” Daniel Bryan is so hateable that we hope he loses. His rants about the environment seem like the weirdest angle ever for a heel, but his promos and AJ Styles new intensity seem to have really taken center stage in this ongoing feud. Anyway, we’d love for Styles to win but it seems like the WWE is really pushing this New Daniel Bryan persona to continue on. Maybe they’ll start a new feud with someone else after he beats Styles again. We do like the look of Mustafa Ali. Bryan wins it, but don’t expect a clean match.

The Bar vs. The Miz and Shane McMahon

What a wacko matchup. The Miz and Shane McMahon storyline and partnership is still so bizarre. McMahon is clearly not in his prime anymore and they don’t have the best chemistry or communication skills as a wrestling duo. Obviously they are not the better team. But somehow, we could see the Miz pulling off a little funny business to win the title. Then they’ll have that World Cup trophy and the belts, and SmackDown will just be mayhem. We bet they even come up with a fun (read: weird) team name and flaunt the titles every Tuesday, beating every opponent that comes their way by cheating. It would be an injustice to The Bar, but let’s be real, it could happen. Don’t expect the Miz and McMahon to play fair.

Buddy Murphy has retained his title so far, but will he drop it in this PPV match? Kalisto is getting some time to shine away from the Lucha House Party, along with some other lesser-known WWE stars, though we don’t think he’ll take this one. Your guess is as good as ours on this one!

Read more

WrestleMania XXXVI will be taking place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL in 2020. It will surely be a packed house full of over 70,000 rabid wrestling fans, and if you’re looking to secure a seat, be sure to check out our detailed WrestleMania 36 seating chart! Fans can expect tickets for this year’s WrestleMania to be in huge demand, and WWE fans have been well known to travel...

WrestleMania XXXVI will be held on Sunday April 5th, 2019 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. The WrestleMania 36 Seating Chart can be a little bit tricky, so we’ve broken it down for you below including seat and row numbers, best seats for WrestleMania 36, and of course Cheap WrestleMania 36 Tickets. Find no fee Wrestlemania Tickets WrestleMania 36 Interactive Seating Chart Hover...

WWE viewership was actually up this week! Fans are tuning back in to watch the rise of new stars, new champs, and new titles. We saw some big changes in what’s happening at the Royal Rumble too. Here’s our recap and the results of WWE Raw, SmackDown, and NXT for the week of January 14th through 16th. Monday Night Raw – January 14th Braun Strowman flipped Vince McMahon’s limo and gets...

We’re finally over that holiday slump. Brock Lesnar showed up this week to hype the Royal Rumble and the WWE Women’s Division showed they’re what the audience really cares about. Here’s our recap and the results of WWE Raw, SmackDown, and NXT for the week of January 7th through 9th. Monday Night Raw – January 7th Seth Rollins and Bobby Lashley Brawled. Well, this was a new way to open the...